Guess who’s funding ObamaCare advocates?

posted at 1:39 pm on August 10, 2009 by Ed Morrissey

Greg Sargent notes that a familiar face will start showering cash on organizations trying to build support for ObamaCare. George Soros, who once pledged his entire fortune in an unsuccessful effort to unseat George Bush, has pledged another $5 million to overcome popular opposition to the government takeover of the health-care industry. Sargent rightly notes that this will become a flashpoint for both sides of the divide:

In another sign of the urgency gripping the pro-health care reform camp, billionaire George Soros has pledged to sink $5 million into the fight, the group getting the money confirmed.

Soros — whose operation carefully guards the privacy of such donations — made the pledge to Health Care For America Now, the leading coalition of pro-reform groups, unions and providers, HCAN chief Richard Kirsch confirmed in an email that was forwarded to me. …

The Soros pledge is noteworthy, because both sides will seize on it. The right will say it shows the real astroturfing is coming from the pro-reform side — billionaire bogeyman Soros is bankrolling this fight!

The left will cite the donation to demand that HCAN show real results. Some on the left, such as blogger Jane Hamsher, have been asking why heavily-bankrolled HCAN hasn’t been able to secure more commitments from Dem members of Congress to stand firm behind a public option.

However, that group may run afoul of Rahm Emanuel and the White House. Emanuel has demanded that HCAN and other advocacy groups focus their sights on Republicans and stop attacking vulnerable Democrats — which, in this case, would be those who have shown great reluctance to get on board with ObamaCare. If HCAN takes Emanuel’s advice, it’s hard to see what they’ll use the money to do, other than buy advertising that strictly focuses on the issue. That issue hasn’t played well thus far, and $5 million of advertising won’t make a dent in the opposition.

The drug industry has authorized its lobbyists to spend as much as $150 million on television commercials supporting President Obama’s health care overhaul, beginning over the August Congressional recess, people briefed on the plans said Saturday.

The unusually large scale of the industry’s commitment to the cause helps explain some of a contentious back-and-forth playing out in recent days between the odd-couple allies over a deal that the White House struck with the industry in June to secure its support. The terms of the deal were not fully disclosed. Both sides had announced that the drug industry would contribute $80 billion over 10 years to the cost of the health care overhaul without spelling out the details.

With House Democrats moving to extract more than that just as the drug makers finalized their advertising plans, the industry lobbyists pressed the Obama administration for public reassurances that it had agreed to cap the industry’s additional costs at $80 billion. The White House, meanwhile, has struggled to mollify its most pivotal health industry ally without alienating Congressional Democrats who want to demand far more of the drug makers. White House officials could not immediately be reached for comment.

To give this some perspective, it helps to recall that John McCain spent $126 million on advertising for the entire general election campaign in 2008. Why have the pharmaceuticals gone for ObamaCare in a big way? Obama promised not to use Medicare’s market advantage to drive down prices any more than the $80 billion already pledged by the industry. That’s basically price-fixing of a kind that the Federal Trade Commission would investigate if it involved a private-sector insurance giant.

Remind me again which side is Astroturfing and getting big, powerful firms funding their operation, and which one represents the actual sense of Americans on government-controlled health care.

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Soros seems to have funded quite a lot of Obama over the past two years. Backroom strongarm tactics used to get the other “donors” in line, I am sure. The Chicago way. Has Rahm Emanuel written all over it.

Earlier today, Ezekiel Emanuel, top health care advisor to the Obama Administration, announced the Administration would propose additional health care legislation, an Act to Protect the Maximum Value of Every Human Life (Life Protection Act).

The Act is designed to protect and maximize the remaining value of lives of seniors too elderly for cost-effective medical treatment. It would provide for (1) a network of mandatory hospices for persons over 65, (2) nationalization of the hospice and undertaking sector, and (3) a federal agency responsible for assuming carcass custody, and processing, marketing and distribution of carcass products. The hospice provisions of the Act would ensure quality control of outcomes (nutritional value, flavor, tenderness of meat products) by mandated regimens of diet and physical behavior for hospice residents.

Its sponsors assert that The Life Protection Act will contain costs and add efficiencies to our health care system that will over ten years eliminate the federal deficit. It will also:
• Free up corn previously required for food supply for ethanol production, thereby reducing the cost of ethanol and lowering food prices for the poor and consumers in Third World countries.
• Add or save 15.2 million green jobs and rescue the economy from the brink of depression.

An amendment to the Life Protection Act would add mentally and physically handicapped persons, and children under three. Fetuses, however, would be separately regulated and reserved for the consumption of senior officials in the legislative and executive branches of the federal government.

Those that did not know who Obama really was before , are starting to wake up to that reality now. Regarding Soros’ funding, there is a smell of desperation in the air. Barry and the gang know the American people don’t want this garbage and they don’t care.

Its sponsors assert that The Life Protection Act will contain costs and add efficiencies to our health care system that will over ten years eliminate the federal deficit. It will also:
• Free up corn previously required for food supply for ethanol production, thereby reducing the cost of ethanol and lowering food prices for the poor and consumers in Third World countries.

Never, ever forget that George Soros founded (and funded) MoveOn.org in the ’90s to spread lies about the anti-Clinton faction. Virtually every faux-patriotic group that slithers out of the Left’s subbasement traces their money back to this guy.

Is such advertising going to make a difference at this point. Is somebody rabidly against government takeover of healthcare really going to change their position because the drug makers are for it? Douobtful.

Big deal, Soros collaborated with the Nazis back in the day, might as well do it now.

Pelayo on August 10, 2009 at 1:50 PM

Soros IS evil and a real threat to American democracy, but was 3 years old when the National Socialists took power in Germany and 15 when they were defeated and removed at the end of WWII

Focus on what Wrongs he continues to actually do instead of bringing up the ‘Nazi’ red herring. Obama is his bee-yatch, and that needs to be looked into much more closely, as Michelle notes in a previous post on this thread

We all declare for liberty; but in using the same word we do not all mean the same thing. With some the word liberty may mean for each man to do as he pleases with himself, and the product of his labor; while with others, the same word many mean for some men to do as they please with other men, and the product of other men’s labor. Here are two, not only different, but incompatible things, called by the same name – liberty. And it follows that each of the things is, by the respective parties, called by two different and incompatible names – liberty and tyranny.
Abraham Lincoln

I raised it merely to bring to light the “dyed-ion-the-wool” character of George Soros.

And yes, he is a clear danger in the present day…money speaks…and Soros has been dumping a lot of it on “progressive” causes…MoveOn, Media matters, and a lot of other “foundations” that have been working overtime to not only elect Obama but keep the Left at the top of the food chain.

Would I love to be a fly on the wall when this pathetic excuse for a human being finally comes face to face with his maker and is asked to make an accounting for all the blessings he received during his life.

Oh boy, who woulda thought someone like Soros would be behind Obama and his Chicago style politics of in your face bullying, insults and lies? He’s going to go down in history as the most disliked and unbelievable president ever. Whether he wins this battle or not.

As someone who works in the pharmaceutical field, I cannot fathom why our Lobby group is FOR this abomination.

omnipotent on August 10, 2009 at 1:56 PM

Pharma was bought off. As Ed said above…

Obama promised not to use Medicare’s market advantage to drive down prices any more than the $80 billion already pledged by the industry. That’s basically price-fixing of a kind that the Federal Trade Commission would investigate if it involved a private-sector insurance giant.

Check this thread on Sweetness and Light. The director of HCAN worked with Rahm Emanuel in Illinois. Also, they get funding from Tides Foundation, according to their web page. Which means they are also likely getting funding from Heinz Foundation who is a major donor of Tides.

Soros makes his billions by creating impoverishment. His talent, if it can be called that, is to destabilize national economies by creating unsurmountable debt load, and then cashing in. Like he’s doing with the U.S. economy: the more destabilization, the greater the economic vulnerability and presto, Soros owns just about everyone.

Soros — whose operation carefully guards the privacy of such donations — made the pledge to Health Care For America Now, the leading coalition of pro-reform groups, unions and providers, HCAN chief Richard Kirsch confirmed in an email that was forwarded to me. …

That’s an very good place to start. Also not patronizing businesses associated with “progressivism,” any and all.

That sorta’ sinks many in the IT area, unfortunately, as also entertainment, but I do make an effort to purchase, use and otherwise patronize products from companies and individuals who make a more reasoned stand in their company and personal politics. I do avoid patronizing any who are “ardent Leftists”.

I don’t see how his money is going to make a difference, given public opinion today, tomorrow and next month. If it’s to fund the minions to hit the street and show support, big deal. If he plans on buying up every health insurance entity in this country, well then we have a problem.

Amen! A couple of years ago my wife showed me a quote from Progressive where we would save about $80 a month. This evil capitalist burned it in the fireplace.

Limerick on August 10, 2009 at 2:13 PM

You have to project costs over time (not that you don’t, just sayin’…). An offer may look great but the consequences may just be terrible. So I look suspiciously on any offer that promises great-great without any details as to what’s implied and to be anticipated afterward.

Once I find a company, product, individual, service, etc. that is reliable over time, makes reasonable adjustments to pricing OVER TIME (no gouges, no continued insults) while maintaining a product/service I rely on without too many complications, I stick with them (like many consumers).

But I do today avoid any and all who are aligned with the Progressive/Leftwing politics.

If Soros is thoroughly investigated, he can be jailed for numerous crimes; failing that, he can at least be exposed for funding–directly and indirectly–literally hundreds of groups in this country which are all working to destroy our economy, our culture, and our society.

He seems to have learned more from the Soviet regimes than from the Nazis, and the whole Nazi Thing will only be a distraction.